“Me han puesto un rosco en física” literally means “they gave me a doughnut in Physics”. Of course, this means an “F”. An American idiom with a similar pastry bent is “getting bageled” when one scores zero runs or points.
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07Oct
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06Oct
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Here’s an idiomatic phrase that rhymes in Spanish as well as its literal translation: “el muerto al hoyo, el vivo al bollo”. The literal translation is “the dead one to the hole, the live one to the roll”. The idiomatic meaning is “let the dead bury the dead”.
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22Sep
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Any carnivore who has been to Spain has surely eaten “chorizo”, that paprika laced sausage. Depending on context, calling someone a “chorizo” can mean “thief” or “idiot”.
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19Aug
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“Meterse en trigo ajeno” literally means “to get oneself in someone else’s wheat”. The idiomatic equivalents are: “to meddle in someone else’s business” and “to stick one’e nose in someone else’s business”.
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07Aug
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Here’s an idiom that is a bit difficult to translate literally: “¡Que te den morcilla!”. My attempt at the literal translation is “that they give you blood sausage!”. The idiomatic meaning is “get lost” or “go to hell”.
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14Jul
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When we’re in a dangerous situation that requires proceeding with caution, we should “tread lightly” or “walk carefully”. In Spanish, an equivalent idiomatic phrase is “andar pisando huevos”, which means “to walk stepping on eggs”.
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12Jun
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Here’s an idiom that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but which is obviously built on the rhyming scheme: “no hay miel sin hiel”. The literal translation is “there is no honey without bile”. The equivalent phrase in English is “no rose without a thorn”.
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10May
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When someone gets too much sun, we might use the phrase “to be burnt to a cinder” or “to be burnt to a crisp”. An equivalent phrase in Spanish is “estar hecho un chicharrón”, which literally means “to be made a pork rind”.
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20Apr
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“Tener arroz y gallo muerto” literally translates to “to have rice and dead rooster”. The idiomatic meaning is “to have a meal fit for a king”.
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02Apr
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“Nunca es mal año por mucho trigo” translates to “it’s never a bad year for a lot of wheat”. An equivalent phrase in English is “you can’t have too much of a good thing”.